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I keep wondering, why does nobody release (or Tesla themselves for that matter) a charger for home use that is built in and uses the Supercharger tech??

I mean, if I have to install a charger for the high power system anyway, why not let me buy a SuperCharger?! Can't be that expensive?

Kleist | September 8, 2013

Does your house have a 120+ kW feed from the utilities? Typical houses have 240V 100A service... that is only good for 20 kW if dedicated to car charging.

ian t.wa.us | September 8, 2013

Yup. Call up your utility and ask for that size feed. See what they say. Then call an electician for an installation quote. See what they say. Then you'll have your answer.

JPPTM | September 8, 2013

Is a HPWC not fast enough for your everyday needs @ 60 miles of range per hour of charge?

bonaire | September 8, 2013

Seems like a bad idea due to the utility factor of the neighborhood transformer. And, if you dont drive 200+ miles a day and have only one hour to turn around do it again (a taxi service owner, perhaps) then HPWC seems appropriate for most people. 30-40A charging is probably fine for most people.

Timo | September 8, 2013

As a technology a lite-version for SC should be rather cheap. It's basically just stack of on-board chargers. 120kW is 12 of those. Maybe Tesla could offer a lite-version for just taxi services or similar that needs fast charging, but not quite SC -level. Normal household would not need that.

Brian H | September 8, 2013

Elon recently said the hardware for one unit was $15K or less.

Haeze | September 9, 2013

If a taxi service wanted to buy a fleet of Tesla Model S cars for their business' use, I can 100% guarantee Tesla Motors would work with them to install a Supercharger at their location, at the expense of the taxi service. They would probably even do it for cost, since it would be a great source of PR for them.

For the regular home user, I rather doubt anyone would be willing to fork over the $50k or so it would take to have a transformer installed in their house (if their local zoning even allowed it) just so they could charge slightly quicker than a HPWC.

bent | September 9, 2013

A pair of SC spots (1A/1B sharing a 120kW) could make a lot of sense in the garage in larger blocks of flats etc. though. A single house owner would have trouble justifying (to himself and to the electric company) why he should have a 120kW feed but if 10+ band together to get one then that is different.

They would all charge off their regular 10kW outlets (or whatever) normally, and then only use an SC spot when in a hurry. Ought to cover all eventualities.

Brian H | September 9, 2013

Yes, the question of need is central: Who needs fast turnaround? Taxis, and l.d. travellers. Not home users.

bent | September 9, 2013

In the domestic setting there is the occasional need for very fast charging, e.g. when someone returns with the car from a long trip and someone else in the household needs it immediately also for a long trip. Another example is when you get someone dropping by from far off who needs to leave again within the hour for a long distance.

The fundamental reason this can happen is that Tesla's super chargers are ~200km from the big cities and so depending on where you're going you may find yourself in the city with very little battery capacity remaining.

Having access to a private super charger could also be very convenient in allowing you to bypass the last super charger stop on your way to the city, entering the city with low charge and yet still be able to quickly top up there to get back to the super charger ~200km away on your return trip. This gives you +20 minutes in the city to do whatever it is you're doing there before you leave again.

teddyg | September 9, 2013

I think people who are not happy with 95% coverage over all eventualities should just forget about buying an electric car.
You are too demanding and too picky.
Unless you are a billionaire and money is no object sure put a supercharger in your garage. But you will find out very quickly that it was a stupendous waste of money when a 240v outlet is more than enough for most.
Wait a few years anyway...more solutions will present themselves. The EV ship is only just leaving the dock.

Timo | September 9, 2013

How about people that don't have garage? Common problem for city dwellers. Over 50% of earth population lives in cities and those need to charge too. Couple of private SC-lite in a block of flats could be helpful for solving that problem.

I find this a major problem for real breakthrough for BEV:s: there are a lot more households (and cars) in cities than there are garages. Current situation isn't even close to 95% coverage over all eventualities. For example in my block of flats there are five garages and over 100 households. There are a lot more parking spaces than there are garages, so sacrificing one or two for private apartment SC-lite would solve charging problem nearly completely. You would need to charge there only every now and then, or just for few minutes to top off your current charge. If it costs only $15k of hardware that's peanuts for apartment building maintenance budged.

bent | September 10, 2013

If Tesla's competition continues being conspicuously absent from the EV scene I can see "garage has Tesla super charger" as a real selling point for high-end apartment complexes.

Haeze | September 10, 2013

@Timo
Unless everyone in that block of flats has a Tesla, a Supercharger would be useless. Other EVs will not be able to charge using a Supercharger station.

Timo | September 10, 2013

That's their loss. Tesla is only one making progress in that area, if others don't jump in in that bandwagon soon, only Tesla SC matters, and others are forced to design their cars to use Tesla SC.

Brian H | September 10, 2013

Design? You mean "license". Elon has openly offered that.

Timo | September 10, 2013

Using licensed tech requires design choices.

wilson_th | September 11, 2013

Can't the super charges be installed in Petrol pumps?. They are already connected to the grid always and would also offer coverage. Petrol pump can charge the user some amount for using their super charger.

Now it's just a rumor, and I highly doubt it's true (there haven't been any electrical permits to back up the rumor). But, it would be really, really funny if it was true.

lotusElan | September 24, 2013

I'm actually really interested in a home supercharger, but running from a generator. Specifically, a n appropriately sized natural gas generator. Fire it up, charge for 40 minutes, it shuts down on a timer. The genset also can double to provide backup power to the home via a simple backup switch. And the best feature of all is that natural gas is far cheaper per kWh than grid electricity.

Brian H | September 24, 2013

Interesting idea. Can it deliver 200 kW?

Kleist | September 25, 2013

You can buy commerical NG generators 150 kW for $30k... just make sure you schedule the crane for delivery... it weighs over a ton.

jensjacob | November 4, 2013

How frequent would you need to supercharge at home ? If once or twice a day will suffice then here is an idea :
Get a battery similar to that in the Tesla. Or lets just say 100kWh to get round numbers.

Since that battery will just be sitting in your basement or in you shed, it can charge continously with 10kW or what ever you have at your house. A full charge will then take about 10 hours and when you get home from work and need to supercharge you can move 60-80 kWh within half an hour or so. - Only limited by electronics and charge and discharge rates of the (Tesla) batterytechnology. Then it will ofcourse be another 8-10 hours before you can do another full supercharge. I might consider that myself.

Just a thought.
Regards Jacob

jensjacob | November 4, 2013

Needless to say that the same battery could be used for electric back up of the entire household. And for storing what ever you might have of private windmill or solarcell input. But if the primary use is for supercharging en EV - you need to have at least some charge at all times.

Great. So it is indeed possible to have supercharging capabilities at home. At a reasonable cost. All you need is a battery, a converter and a cable, all appropriately sized of course.

Earl and Nagin ... | November 5, 2013

Cheaper idea;
Buy another Model to be charging with an HPWC while you are driving. It will be ready to go when you get home.
Besides you already have Supercharger technology at your house. The basic charging unit for a Supercharger is simply the onboard charger. You even have the option to buy 2 of them if you want to use the HPWC to charge faster. A supercharger just has 12 of them while you only have one or two.

JaredBanyard | November 5, 2013

Yeah pretty sure you need at least 3-phase 480v / 400A service to your house (nobody has more than 2-phase 240v unless you live on a compound or at a commercial property). I'm assuming the Superchargers are 3-phase, and at 480v service, would require 250A to hit 120kW.

Timo | November 5, 2013

Depends where you live. In here three-phase 400V is quite common, pretty much every detached house has it. Not 400A though.